Michael D. Beaver

is a three volume encyclopedic photographic examination of verified original garments, meticulously organized in chronological order with exact information about when different changes were introduced. The scope of the series extends only as far as the cloth garments, excludes headgear, helmets, leather gear, edged weapons and footwear. There's quite a lot of context provided, which tells the tale of the evolution and the logistical hurdles that drove some decisions. Primarily this was down to shortages in raw textile materials, but also other things such as the social frictions involved in having a separate political army in addition to the Heer and the conundrums this raised in uniform design. All the numbers and letters stamped into the factory-produced items are interpreted and explained. Beaver points out all the little individual irregularities and popular non-regulation customizations, such as snappy pink collar piping on black panzer tunics, or peacocking NCOs splashing out and getting bespoke tunics with officer grade insignia technically above their rank.

The images of the garments are immaculate. Considering these books simply as a fashion / costume lover this series is top notch. It really lets you LOOK. The format is large, the specimens shown in full color as big as the page will allow. The presentation in the main photographs is on par with or even better than the My Freedamn! book series by Rin Tanaka, which explore counterculture American clothes of the 1930s-80s.

However it's the additional photographs that really push this series into treasure territory. For uniforms with documented provenance, the name of the soldier is included, and photographs of him where available. This is really interesting and adds much context to the lavish-yet-sterile documentary photographs of the uniforms perfectly cleaned and pressed with only ghosts living in them. A couple of examples also have matching ephemera - Soldbuch or other papers. The many other photos are very carefully selected and illustrate details of uniforms, things such as the suspender attachments of trousers and quirky pocket flap scallop variations.

Overall an incredible reference. I feel like an expert having read it.… (plus d'informations)